EnBW and Siemens Planning More Efficient Power Plant

EnBW Energie Baden-Wurttemberg AG, Germany’s third largest energy company, has joined forces with Siemens Power Generation to build a fuel cell hybrid power plant that could boast up to 70% efficiency.

The two companies plan to construct a megawatt-class demonstration plant, with the goal of the research project being to convert up to 70% of the fuel energy into electricity.

The necessary groundwork for the proposed plant is scheduled to be completed by 2008. This will provide the basis for construction of an initial, small pilot plant, to be followed beginning in 2012 by the planned fuel cell hybrid plant with an installed capacity of one megawatt.

EnBW and Siemens Power Generation aim to achieve the high efficiency by combining a high-temperature fuel cell with a gas turbine in the planned hybrid plant in order to make more efficient use of the fuel and minimize emissions. The efficiency of the hybrid process is significantly greater than that of modern gas- and steam-turbine power plants, which reach an efficiency of approximately 60%.

After successful completion of the project, this hybrid technology will become available roughly a decade sooner than expected by experts today, the companies said.

“This technology will bring us a big step forward in our effort to extract more electricity from less and less fuel, and to bring emissions down to lower and lower levels,” commented Dr Thomas Hartkopf, EnBW vice president in charge of engineering.